The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-07-17
GEORGE NJ. PULLMAN.
How He Raised Chicago Buildings ON Stills
His First Palace Car.

kS81S60
His First Palace Car.
Chicago Mail.
Early in the sixties tho raising of the level
of Chicago had put all the principal downtown
streets half dozen feet above the basement
windows of houses and stores. The owners. of
course, set about restoring the old order of
things, and the method which most of them were
adopting was to so cut the timbers that the base
ment flooring could be slipped up 20 where the
second-story belonged, the second story floor to
the third and the third to the roof. The
result that the four-storv buildings
became three-story ones, and SO on down. Pull
man stood at the corner of Randolph and Dear
born streets watching this sort of operation In
progress one of the old brick buildings.
'.Why don't you" he said TO the owner. raise
the building from the groundY Then it wouldn't
be necessary to tear the inside of the building to
pieces" The owner turned to Pullman and
m arked that it might have escaped his notice
that the building brick. not wood. No."
the answer was, cit was plain the house was
brick and old, but it was just as plain that the
whole structure could be raised from the ground
without breaking any OF the plastering and with
out disturbing even the furniture"
This conversation is historical It turned out
to be Of very great consequence to a great many
people, and there are any number of people
familiar with all its details. The real estate
owner soid George nj. Pullman that if he could
that it would be done safely, he would like ia
have him raise the brick drug store that stood
on the corner directly opposite where the Borden
block now is. How much would it COST The
observation-disclosures was in that business
then-said he'd take the contract for just what
it cost by the old-fashioned method. There
were chickering's. naturally; but finally about
100 men one morning surrounded the
brick drug store and began TO put in place
forest of jack-screws-old citizens say that there
were q thousand of them. These had been
bought. some of them. and borrowed. AN the
screws in town were on that lot, aud hundreds
that had been brought from down East A B.
Pullman, brother. stood at one corner. and the
millionaire president of the palace-car company
at another. AS George M. Pullman raised his
arm A. B. Pullman raised his. and then each
man gave one turn to the three four jack
screws that were under his charge. Half Chi
cago was on the spot
After three or four turns had been given, and
while the crowd was waiting to see the ssruc-
ture start, George NJ. Pullman waved his arms.
A B. Pullman waved his, and the men dropped
their crowbars for the day The crowd, went
away wondering. The building which had
morning was clear of the GROUND by an inch
more. The tension of the timbers had worked
everything clear of the ground over night The
crowd when. it came down the next day
was amazed when it saw that the brick
building stood on the jackscrews;a that
even the bottles on the drug store
customers could come and go by way of a gang
way that had been built That building went
MP and up. and the foundation was built under
it, and the whole of Chicago was at Pullmans
feet He raised whole block of buildings soon
after that strung along on Lake street. from La
Sale up Clark. and that comprised all sorts Of
structures, some big and some little, some
joined by party walls, and some clear of their
neighbors. Then he raised the great fremont
House, structure as large as it is now. big
enough to hold 500 people, and built eff Luassive
granite. That showed what Geoi0e NJ. Pullman
could do in the way of house-raising r1sou
About this time keen Yankee had gotten
permission from the Michigan Southern Rail
road to go through its night cars with q head
rest which he offered for fifty cents. to
on the back of passengers seat It took very
we'll. and the Yankee found that a good many
people were willing to pay simply for the luxury
Of q head-rest George M. Pullman saw the thing,
settled at once in his mind that it was thing
that was good. and bought out the Yankee and
mis- patents. He had for time the same privi-
eEes that the original Yankee had and then
asked thet an old be set aside for him to
make experiments with The Pullman Palace
EAR Company. whose 5000 900 stock is selling
above $50. and whose surplus is now figured az
BIO. O00, 0G0 shows how well Pullman worked w
the idea Of that head-rest.